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THE REAL HOLY SPIRIT 


Works by 
CORTLAND MYERS 


REAL PRAYER 


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THE REAL HOLY SPIRIT 


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The Real Holy Spirit 


Ay 
CORTLAND MYERS, D.D. 
Minister at the Baptist Temple, Brooklyn, New York 


Author of “ Making a Life,’ “ Why Men Do Not 
Go to Church,” “ The New Evangelism,” etc. 


New York Chicago Toronto 
Fleming H. Revell Company 
London and Edinburgh 


Copyright, 1909, by . 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 125 No, Wabash Ave. 
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 


To 


one greatly beloved by Him and by me, 
The Rev. WALTER [RVING SOUTHERTON, 


The author 


Rect dnes: 


CONTENTS 


THE REAL FAILURE. 
THE REAL FACT 
THE REAL FAITH 
THE REAL FIDELITY 
THE REAL FAME 


THE REAL FORCE 


ya 


I 


THE REAL FAILURE 


a “AHE greatest reality in the world 

to-day is the Person and the 
~ Power of the Holy Spirit. The 
greatest unreality in the world to-day is 
the Person and the Power of the Holy 
Spirit. This strange contrast stands side 
by side with the sad failure in the Christian 
Church and the Christian Life. The min- 
ister of Christ is disheartened, discouraged, 
dissatisfied, disappointed, because of fail- 
ure, but the failure is his inability to make 
real God’s great reality. It is in his creed 
but not in his conviction. It is even in his : 
teaching but not in his life. Blessed is the. 
hour of recognition that the one supreme 
fact and force is the Holy Spirit, and this 
can be made practical and personal in 
every life. But almost universally it is 


[9 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


impractical and impersonal and mysterious 
and unreal. One of God’s chosen was 
enveloped in this fog, and when it par- 
tially and temporarily lifted he was im- 
prisoned in a fence of interrogation marks. 
He recognized the truth of Scripture and 
the great necessity, but it invariably re- 
vealed the mark of the unreal. He read 
the statements of others, and heard the 
strange experiences of the few, and his life 
was barren of all this. But at last in the 
desert wanderings, thirsty and weary, he 
stumbled upon an oasis—grass and palm 
trees and sweet water. It was drink from 
the fountains of God. It was refreshing, 
and life from the gardens of the upper 
world. He said in that hour, ‘Why not 
make it real?’”—‘‘ Why not take this out 
of the clouds and place it right down on 
the earth and in every-day life?”’ Dis- 
cover the conditions and fulfill them, and 
then live the great reality. This is God’s 


[ 10 ] 


The Real Failure 


intent for you. It was morning. A new 
day and a new world. It dawned upon 
him that he had just as much right to 
claim the Holy Spirit as the man who 
carried the saintly and oftentimes sickly 
appearance; that he who was most of a 
man was most fitted for the divine indwell- 
ing ; that the Spirit of God wanted to use 
every faculty of the individual man; he 
must retain his humour and humanity as 
well as his holiness, for they are a part of 
this ‘“Wholeness.” It was a revelation to 
know that God wanted to use the man just 
as He had made him and that He could use 
wit, as well as wisdom ; that He could use 
a happy disposition better than a holy dis- 
Sipation; that a minister who was called 
sensational might be most deeply spiritual, 
and he who preached a practical Gospel, 
preached the most powerful one; he who 
pushed his way in the thickest of the fight 
against sin and wrong might know more 


[rr] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


of the Holy Spirit than the man who was 
self-righteous because other people called 
him a saint and who tried to look, if not to 
live, the spiritual. Our great failure is in 
relation to the Holy Spirit, but misunder- 
standing may be more the cause of the fail- 
ure than either the lack of desire or devo- 
tion. There is no part of the Christian re- 
ligion so hidden in the fogs of unreality. 
In this centre of truth the mists are densest. 
Here is the long night and deep darkness, 
with occasional stars in the sky, but for 
most Christians no dawn of morning with 
its flood of light. There is not one nominal 
Christian in a thousand who has grasped, 
with any personal appreciation, the great 
fact of the Holy Spirit. Is there one 
church in a thousand which could justly 
claim that it was a church of the Holy 
Spirit? We have splendid equipment in 
men, money and machinery, but here is the 
startling failure. The question asked once 


[12] 


The Real Failure 


could be repeated in the churches all over 
the world, ‘Have ye received the Holy 
Spirit since ye believed?’”’ And some 
must answer, ‘ We have not so much as 
heard of the Holy Spirit.” We are in 
ignorance and weakness because the great- 
est of truths is covered with unreality. We 
can understand other things, but not this, 
grasp other truths, but not this, make 
the Christian life real, but not this part of 
it. The most important is the most unreal. 
We cast it aside, and yet this is the one 
supreme necessity for lifeand service. The 
answer is not in the mystery of the truth 
itself any more than in other parts of re- 
ligion and life. The spiritual is with us. 
We know it; we can grasp it and live it. 
We do live it. It is the larger part of life. 
While we can more easily understand the 
things we can see and touch, yet this does 
not prevent us from making real life out of 
this highest and best. That which has the 


[rss 


The Real Holy Spirit 


most to do with each day, even in the 
material world, is oftentimes least compre- 
hended. We are wise and practical 
enough to use other forces which we can- 
not explain. The main question in regard 
to this greatest truth of the kingdom of 
God is not one of understanding or expla- 
nation by processes of human reasoning, 
but rather of our practical and personal 
_use. Wisdom will ask only for the condi- 
_ tions, and consecration will fulfill them. 
Then every man has the right and duty to 
claim the result. This unreality has been 
‘caused largely by false statements and 
false life, not by revelation or impossibility. 
We think of this as mystical and intangible, 
but other things are not so matter of fact 
as we imagine. The greatest experiences 
of life are just as far from description and 
explanation. Music is an exaltation and 
the sublime and beautiful an inspiration, 
and worship an aspiration, and no part of 


[14] 


The Real Failure 


life is more normal and natural than this. 
We possess spiritual sensibilities and they 
are capable of an awakening and an up- 
lifting for all life. We cannot throw these 
things into a crucible or place them under 
a scalpel; they are not to be measured or 
defined, but they are very real and very 
beneficial. They are so fundamental in 
our lives that they are the response of the 
soul to the soul of allthings. We relegate 
the best and most important to the mystical. 
But many things, which may now seem 
dreamlike, will by and by appear as the 
moving powers of the world. So the 
operation of the Holy Spirit is most 
natural and most normal and must be 
made most real. Many extremists and 
fanatics have discouraged or disgusted 
normal Christians. A minister arose in a 
gathering of his fellow ministers and made 
wonderful statements of startling experi- 
ences and the miraculous baptism of the 


[15] 


The ‘Real Holy Spirit 


Holy Spirit. He had journeyed a long 
distance to one of the summer gatherings 
where the teachings concerning the spirit- 
ual life are emphasized, and there the great 
event in his life took place. The Holy 
Spirit came upon him. His frame shook 
and it seemed beyond the possibility of 
endurance. He distinctly felt the Spirit go 
from the crown of his head to the sole of his 
foot as he was “ filled,” and the Scripture 
had been fulfilled. He gave the details 
of these feelings, most of them physical, 
until other faithful ministers were disheart- 
ened because no experience like this had 
ever been theirs and possibly they had no 
right to claim the divine presence and 
power. Someone who knew this baptized 
individual whispered to his neighbour, 
“ He ought to have such a baptism every 
hour of his life. He is the meanest man 
in his family, and a destroyer of churches. 
He has rarely kept a church more than one 


[ 16 ] 


The Real Failure 


year, and injured every one ofthem.” He, 
and many others like him, in this day have 
received the impression that these spiritual 
Meccas could give a man the Holy Spirit, 
and that the Christians who made the 
journey received the blessing. It is nota 
question of geography. It is a question of 
life. It is not a question of physical feel- 
ing, or momentary exaltation. It is a 
question of God’s best for every man who 
will fulfill plain, unmistakable conditions, 
and live the real, normal man’s life. A 
company of ministers met every week at 
night and remained awake all night to 
pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 
Some apparently less holy ministers slept 
their best at night and worked their hard- 
est all day. Those who branded them- 
selves with sainthood and were the re- 
ceivers of the Holy Spirit by virtue of this 
nightly vigil are not in their churches now 
and were not signal successes at that hour 


[17] 


The Real FLoly Spirit 


The others are in the same fields doing 
the best work of their lives and Saving a 
great number of their fellow men. No 
condemnation need be made upon any 
honest effort to receive this best of God’s 
gifts for to-day, and the great essential for 
Christians and churches. But this remains 
unquestionably true that many of these 
things in assemblies and in individuals 
have covered the truth concerning the 
Holy Spirit with unreality and almost 
separated it from ordinary life and work. 
This is increased by the fact that, in most 
instances, the results in service do not tally 
with the pretenses in experience. Every 
sincere Christian and every faithful church 
would rather have the power of the Holy 
Spirit than any other blessing God can 
give. They are seeking, as never before, 
for the real Holy Spirit, and He is waiting, 
like the boundless and fathomless ocean, 
to roll its mighty tide against the streams 


[ 18 ] 


The Real Failure 


of the human and lift the shallows into 
great depths and change the turbulence 
into stillness and fill the channels with His 
own divineness, until life has come to its 
best, in being “ filled with all the fullness 
of God.” 


[ 19 ] 


IT 
THE REAL FACT 


HERE is a small village in the 

heart of the mountains nestling 

under the shelter of the hills by 
the side of a beautiful lake called “The 
Smile of the Great Spirit.’ The Indians 
were so near to nature that they knew to 
name it almost by the touch of inspiration. 
It is His Smile. I rested in this mountain 
home for weeks. It was near the border- 
land of perfect rest and peace. At least, 
some of the glory and quiet of that other 
world had swept across the boundary. I 
walked its roadways and picked its flowers 
and listened to its bird songs and loved 
its silence. One morning I climbed the 
mountains which towered above the vil- 
lage towards the clouds. On the summit 
the vision revealed the homes and valley 


[ 20] 


ie Real race 


and lake and mountain and touch of God, 
in such beauty that I said, “I never saw 
this place until this morning.’ I had only 
caught glimpses and knew the separated 
parts. Now the altitude revealed the com- 
bination and the perfection. I had seen 
fragments of the mosaic; now I saw the 
completed work of the Creator, “the smile 
of the Great Spirit.” But the days had 
passed, and only in these last hours ] made 
the discovery and now I must leave. Most 
Christians live all their days in the valley 
and imagine they know life at its best. 
They do see and feel, they understand and 
experience Christianity, but it is fragmen- 
tary and disconnected and unsatisfactory. 
Most followers of Christ never climb to the 
summit, where the reality is discovered 
and God’s best revelation is made. To 
know Christian life and Christian service, 
we must go to the mountain top of Chris- 
tian experience, which is the reality of the 


[21] 


The Real ffoly Spirit 


Holy Spirit; not in the mists or clouds, 
but just as near as we can get to heaven 
and yet have our feet on the earth. « The 
smile of the Great Spirit” is God’s gift to 
man. His Holy Spirit to live in them and 
work through them, this is the consumma- 
tion of His revelation and His redemption. 
This is at once the supreme element in life 
and the supreme question in theology. It 
is of more vital and practical importance 
to every individual believer than any other 
question in the world. The Holy Spirit is 
the great reality of the Scriptures. He is 
mentioned many times in the Old Testa- 
ment, and in striking relations to men. 
He is represented as coming upon them, 
working through them, but working from 
without or from above. In the dawn of 
Christianity a great change takes place. 
He is so much more important, and His 
method is so different. He lives in the 
Christian and works from within. This 


[ 22 ] 


q The Real “Pact 


living, abiding fellowship is so wonderful 
that we have hesitated and doubted and 
made it unreal, at least for ourselves. 


The personal indwelling of the divine 
Spirit is the distinctive glory of the Chris- 
tian dispensation and the Christian life. 
When the forerunner of Christ was prepar- 
ing the way, his message concerning Jesus 
was twofold, and one part was quite as 
important as the other. We have failed to 
explain it or to emphasize it, but John the 
Baptist knew the secret and was faithful 
in its revelation. Christ was ‘the Lamb 
of God who was to take away the sin of 
the world.” But He was also to “bap- 
tize with the Holy Spirit.” The d/ood and 
the daptzsm were both the great essentials. 
They were inseparable. There was no 
Gospel without both of these central truths. 
God was to do one with just as much ne- 
cessity and certainty as the other, but be- 
cause we more quickly apprehend one 


[ 23 J 


The Real ffoly Spirit 


than the other, we naturally neglect the 
one not so easily understood. The sacri- 
ficial and pouring out of blood was more 
visible and outward. The indwelling of 
the Holy Spirit was the Spiritual, and 
therefore not so readily grasped or made 
the practical reality. He who was to bap- 
tize His followers with the Spirit was here 
their example, as in all other parts of His 
life. He was begotten of the Spirit. He 
grew up in the power of the Spirit. On 
the threshold of His active ministry and as 
a reward of His obedience, the Holy Spirit 
came upon Him with a new inflow of 
power, something beyond that which He 
had yet experienced. He is anointed with 
the Holy Ghost, and a new consciousness 
seems to have been His. In the hour of 
temptation this was put to the severest 
test and Jesus comes away from the wilder- 
ness prepared to baptize with the Holy 
Spirit. He lived His life ; He performed 


[ 24 ] 


The Real Fact 


His miracles; He arose from the dead by 
the power of the Holy Spirit. One of the 
oft-repeated and most emphatic parts of His 
teaching and that which was taught at the 
most impressive moments was this great 
reality. He understood it and we must 
understand that the baptism of the Holy 
Spirit is the culmination and the glory of 
Christ’s work. He distinctly and repeat- 
edly told His disciples that this was their 
supreme privilege and their only hope of 
victory. This was so true and so impor- 
tant that it was necessary that He go away 
in order that another Comforter come who 
could live in them. He told them not to 
venture a step until the promise had been 
fulfilled. He urged them to wait for the 
promise of the Father. They were doomed 
to failure unless they should tarry in the 
city until this great reality should be ex- 
perienced. He had taught them this 
many times by lesson and by life that this 


[ 25 ] 


The Real Holy Spirtt 


was the one resource even to the certainty 
of putting the words in their mouths and 
driving the shadow of fear from their 
pathway. 

The power was to come when the 
Holy Spirit was come. They were to be 
the courageous-conquering witnesses. He 
told them this was so real that it was not they 
who spoke but the Holy Spirit. He would 
bring all things to their remembrance and 
guide them into all truth. He was to ac- ; 
company every witness and every utter- 
ance and do the work of conviction and of 
regeneration. So sacred was this truth 
and so important in its relation to their 
lives and to His Gospel that He uttered 
concerning it that startling and solemn 
statement, “ Whosoever shall blaspheme 
against the Holy Spirit hath never for- 
giveness.” This is the indelible stamp 
placed upon no other truth in the Bible. 
So real and so vital was the work of the 


[ 26 ] 


The Real Fact 


Holy Spirit to the world’s redemption. 
The last and best thing Jesus ever did 
for His disciples was when He breathed on 
them and said “Receive ye the Holy 
Spirit.” All His work for them and for 
the world found its realization and fulfill- 
ment in Pentecost. This is the historic 
fact. To grasp the mysteries and the 
niceties of the matter need not trouble us. 
This is the history. Here is the fact. It 
has only one interpretation and cannot be 
bowed out. The legacy of Jesus is Chris- 
tianity’s great utility and reality. The 
Supreme question was here answered, 
“How could the Father dwell in men even 
as He dwelt in Christ?” The very Spirit 
who made Bethlehem possible now came 
and dwelt in the bodies of sinful men. 
This is the greatest marvel and the 
greatest reality. Everything else was in 
preparation for this wonderful consumma- 
tion. The disciples had known the bliss- 


[ 27 ] 


The Real Floly Spirit 


ful experience of having Christ with them. 


His life was with them yet outside their 
own. Now it was the blessedness of His 
personal life within them. The very Spirit 
of God’s own Son as He had lived and 
loved and now glorified was to be their 
personal life. The promise was abun- 
dantly fulfilled to these disciples on the day 
of Pentecost and they were equipped 
for the apparently impossible task. The 
miraculous was real and the wonders be- 
yond all expectation, but this was only the 
outward and visible. The great reality 
was the change in the disciples them- 
selves. The transformation of weakness 
into strength, of ignorance into wisdom 
and of fear into courage. It was a bap- 
tism .of real power such as mankind had 
never witnessed or experienced. There is 
no chapter of human history which has 
such a grip upon life, and the deep things 
of life, personal or social as the story of 


[ 28 ] 


The Real Fact 


Pentecost. The only explanation of Peter 
and his sermon, of Stephen and his life, of 
Barnabas and his sacrifice, is that the most 
wonderful event in human history had now 
taken place. The only real thing in all 
the world to these disciples was the un- 
questioned fulfillment of their Master’s 
promise and beyond all anticipation. Not 
an interrogation mark did any one of these 
ever place against it. They made it plain 
to themselves and to their immediate fol- 
lowers, that the Holy Spirit had come for 
the purpose of fulfilling Christ’s work, and 
their only hope was in Him. The sermon 
preached in the power of the Holy Spirit 
invariably commanded men not only to 
repent but to be baptized with the Holy 
Spirit. These truths were inseparable. 
If one was real the other was just as real. 
So great was this emphasis and so evident 
this reality that the Acts of the Apostles 
might just as well be called the acts of the 


[ 29 J 


The Real FLoly Spirit 


Holy Spirit. The proof of conversion was 
in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the 
natural question of all was, “ Have you re- 
ceived the Holy Spirit since you believed?” 
This was to be the universal experience, 
and when Saul of Tarsus opened his 
blind eyes and changed his name, this 
was the first requisite. He must receive 
the Holy Spirit ; and no follower of Jesus 
ever proved the great reality by word and 
work more emphatically and effectively 
than he. Through him God spoke the 
word of command to every other man, 
“Be filled with the Spirit,” and in variety 
of expression repeated the statement of 
Pentecost that “the promise was to you 
and your children and to all that are afar 
off, even to as many as the Lord your God 
shall call.” So real is this that we must 
consider the astounding fact that in God’s 
intent our very bodies are the temples of 
the Holy Spirit—that we cannot pray with- 


[ 30 ] 


The Real Fact 


out the Holy Spirit—He makes interces- 
sion for us, and so earnest that He does it 
with groaning that cannot be uttered. It 
is folly if not blasphemy for any man to 
pray who does not pray in the Holy Spirit, 
or rather the Holy Spirit pray in him. 
Neither can we worship without His aid. 
In a very real sense He brings the heart 
in right relation to God and removes the 
barriers to this highest act in human life. 
For “the true worshipper worships the 
Father in Spirit and in truth.” “God isa 
Spirit and they that worship Him must 
worship Him in Spirit and in truth.” The 
declaration of Scripture also is that “we 
worship by the Spirit of God.” We can- 
not even read our Bible without this 
reality. The one unique fact concerning: 
the Bible and the man who reads it, is 
that the Holy Spirit is in both. It is His 
Book. The reader must be His man. 
There is no more fatal error in the world 


ber J 


The Real Holy Spirit 


than to ignore or neglect this. The word 
cannot unfold its meaning or give its life 
to any man except as the Spirit within ac- 
cepts and appropriates it. Much of study 
and preaching is in vain, because of failure 
here. We think if we only know correctly 
and exactly what it means then will come 
aS a consequence the blessing the word 
intended to bring. Notso. The word is 
a seed to which the soil must be adapted. 
We may hold doctrines of Scripture most 
intelligently and even earnestly and know 
nothing of their life and power. This was 
the serious defect in the religion and life 
of the Jews, and Jesus constantly reminded 
them of it. We have more light and are 
more guilty. This is our feebleness of 
service and weakness of character. To 
understand any book the reader must 
know the same language as the author. 
He must even have some of the same 
spirit as the one who wrote. To under- 


E32] 


The Real Fact 


stand and secure the blessing of the 
Scriptures we must have the same Holy 
Spirit as those who wrote the Book. The 
power of the word depends upon a man’s 
living fellowship with Jesus through the 
indwelling Spirit. No man can come to 
the Bible with an unclean heart or an evil 
temper or an unholy purpose. No man 
can come to it with an animal life, no man 
can come to it with raging passions and 
understand these truths which belong to 
the higher nature, and the very nature of 
God. The heart must be in right condi- 
tion, as the astronomer polishes his glasses 
and keeps his instruments in order for 
work, Pride and jealousy and arrogance 
and selfishness and covetousness and self- 
conceit are clouds and mists, before the 
telescope of the soul. The Bible is to 
be read by the heart. The pure in heart 
only see God. The natural man cannot 
behold the things of the Spirit. We must 


E333) 


The Real ffoly Spirit 


experience spiritual things in order to un- 
derstand them. The lower can never un- 
derstand the higher. There is a witness 
of the Holy Spirit. It is for you. Be 
ready. Wait, listen, not by scholars’ rea- 
son, but the Christian’s heart. This is the 
great fact to reckon with. “When He 
the Spirit of truth is come He will guide 
you into all truth.” 

What astounding provision for every 
necessity in Christian living and service | 
The very divineness and blessedness of it 
may blind us to the every-day common 
practical reality of it. Our shame isin the 
doubt and hesitation before God’s best. 
Our sin is our refusal. Our loss is the 
tragedy of life. We live like the old man 
who owned three hundred acres of land 
He was poor almost to starvation with 
this nominal possession. One day some 
men appeared and surveyed the surround- 
ing country. They asked him his price 


[ 34 ] 


The Real Fact 


for his poor land. He sold it for $1 an 
acre. Out of that very land millions of 
dollars have been taken and are being 
taken to-day. It seems to be unlimited 
for there is one of the richest mines in the 
world. The average Christian is starving 
on the surface of the richest mine in the 
universe of God. 


[35 ] 


III 
THE REAL FAITH 


HE sand-storm swept across the 
desert in Egypt. It blinded our 
eyes and almost placed the sun in 

hiding. It was a rain of finest sand, 
blown at terrific rapidity from the desert 
and over the valley of the Nile. With 
great difficulty we found our way from the 
lower levels up the slope to the height of 
the old citadel guarding the city of Cairo. 
Here we were lifted above the storm and 
under the clear sky. Almost immediately 
the hurricane died away, and in the silence 
the beautiful river like a bright coloured 
ribbon on the garment of the Queen of Na- 
ture combined with that valley of emerald 
glory and the delta of rarest richness in 
harvests and verdure to make a picture 
never to be taken from the gallery walls of 


[ 36 ] 


The Real Faith 


memory. Most Christians live on the bor- 
der line of the desert and are blind in the 
sand-storms. They never know the high- 
est and best. Blessed is he who hastens 
up to the citadel of faith and catches a 
glimpse of the possibilities and glories of a 
life with the Holy Spirit, the indwelling 
God. Is this second part of a Christian 
life as real as the first part? Is it obtained 
by practically the same means? There is 
an emphatic affirmation to all this. Any 
one who can believe for one part of his 
Christian life can believe for this other 
part, and with equal assurance. Why not 
believe in the Holy Spirit for His blessing 
the same as we believe in Christ for His 
blessing? There is just as much reason 
and certainty for the one as for the other. 
If I can have faith in Jesus Christ to save 
me I can have faith in Him to fulfill His 
promise. One is just as sacred to Him as 
the other. It ought to be just as real to 


aa 


The Real FLoly Spirit 
GE ar MES YE Ny Opa ES 


me as the other. No less is demanded of 
me in receiving Christ’s pardon than there 
is in receiving Christ’s power. Why not 
hold the same relation to one as to the 
other? Believe and you shall be saved. 
Believe and you shall be Spirit-filled. 
Every man must come into the Christian 
life by faith. Every Christian must come 
into this larger life by faith. It will be the 
dawn of a new day in many a troubled 
heart to recognize this elemental truth. 


There is no greater mystery or impossibility 
concerning the one than the other. He 
who can be saved can and ought to be 
filled with the Holy Spirit on the same con- 
dition. If there is reality in one there is 
the same reality in the other. Just to be- 
lieve and to act accordingly. The winds 
have blown across the mystery desert and 
we have been blinded to this similarity and 
simplicity. There are different experiences 
in conversion. As many shades of differ- 


[ 38 ] 


Rc REST Rages 


ence as there are individuals, but this does 
not affect the reality. There is the same 
variety of experience in relation to the 
Holy Spirit, but the central fact remains 
the same. If one man can tell of a mar- 
vellous and miraculous and momentary 
conversion that does not destroy the reality 
of the conversion in the sacred silence of 
the soul with so much of the gradual and 
so little of the wonderful as to make it im- 
possible to fix any definite time for the 
change. It is sufficient for any one to 
know that he has passed from death unto 
life, even though he cannot mark off the 
moment of the great transition. These 
contrasts in receiving Christ into the heart 
are recognized everywhere, and in the fail- 
ure to reckon with them there has been 
many a danger and a disaster. We have 
been mistaken and misled in relation to this 
second part of God’s gift. The experience 
of another has been made a standard and a 


[ 39 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 
e 


false standard. This is the cause of one of 
the greatest misunderstandings and losses 
in human life. We need not condemn 
the man as fanatical or false who passes 
through a definite, positive, unmistakable 
experience of the new life in receiving the 
Holy Spirit. Undoubtedly this is as true 
as his conversion, more true than in any 
other part of his life. So real that there is 
not the shadow of a question mark to be 
placed upon it, but I shall not be condi- 
tioned by his experience nor by his geog- 
raphy. It is not a question of longitude 
or latitude, but of living my personal life. 
My faculties and my disposition and my 
whole make-up enter into the considera- 
tion. I must come to the Holy Spirit with 
the same manhood and the same faith with 
which I come to Christ and with which I 
meet every other part of life. If Iam to 
be myself in one place I must be myself in 
the other. If faith is real in one sphere it 


[ 40 ] 


The Real Faith 


must be in the other. It is blindest folly 
to relegate this best to some other part of 
life or some other man’s life. A personal 
experience in conversion demands a per- 
sonal experience here. It may be sudden. 
It may be unique. It may be gradual. It 
may be common. But the method is not 
the important feature. Is it a fact? Has 
the open heart a right to claim it? Has 
faith the substance to make it real? Bar- 
nabas never had the experience of Peter, 
but both men were filled with the Holy 
Spirit. This may have been a greater 
reality to them than their conversion, It 
can be to us if we will only fulfill the con- 
ditions and take God at His word. Faith 
is the one faculty of our nature by which 
we receive the divine. There can be no 
other. This is the spiritual necessity. If 
it could have been otherwise God would 
have made it so. We know the Father by 
faith and the Spirit in our hearts is His gift 


[41 ] 


The Real ffoly Spirit 


through Christ, and we must have this by 
faith. Just to look up into His face with 
His promise upon our lips while faith opens 
the heart’s door and lets the Holy Spirit 
fill every nook and corner and call it His 
temple. Then to live. Just to live as if 
this was the greatest fact in life. Every 
believer must have had some relation with 
the Holy Spirit in the hour of his regenera- 
tion, and in a certain sense the Holy Spirit 
is his possession always. Faith accom- 
plished this. The same faith will accom- 
plish the other and larger relation to the Holy 
Spirit. The shallowest faith demands that 
we act as though the one were true. This 
deeper confidence makes the same demand. 
The disciples received the Holy Spirit when 
Jesus breathed on them in that last holy 
hour. But they waited in faith for the full 
baptism of power. This waiting was the 
test and the perfection of their faith. They 
simply believed and cultivated the quiet 


Ace 


The Real Faith 


assurance, they kept thinking and saying, 
“The Holy Spirit livesin me.” The great 
reality did not come all at once for them. 
It will not for us, but step by step, and ac- 
knowledging the conviction the goal will 
be reached when the heart recognizes in 
deepest gratitude its possession of the Holy 
Spirit. Why not ask this like every other 
prayer and in the same certainty as the for- 
giveness of sin, with the same assurance as 
our daily bread? More ready is God to 
give this than a father is to give good 
things to his child. Amazing promise 
pushed up against the human heart at its 
best, a father’s love for his child. “More 
ready.” How can the child of God ques- 
tion this? He ought not to even look in 
his heart for feeling or light. It may be 
cold and dark. He is simply to believe 
and just rest in what God is doing. Fix 
the soul in silence and give the Holy Spirit 
time to deepen this assurance. It is pre- 
[ 43 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


eminently true here that “We walk by 
faith,” a faith which believes even when 
the least evidence of His working is not 
seen. Restfully and trustfully to count 
upon the reality, and in that faith to yield 
up the whole being to His dwelling and 
His use, to His complete rule and mastery. 
This faith is not merely the conviction that 
God’s word is true. It is rather the Spirit- 
ual organ of the soul, it is the habit of the 
soul, it is the life of the soul, so that we 
come to say, “I live by faith.” Itis through 
this channel that the Spirit can enter in His 
fullness. The Christian wastes his time in 
praying for the indwelling Spirit. He is 
there, but the holiest prayer breaks from 
his lips when he asks for the Spiritual per- 
ception of the fact and the experience of its 
fullness. This prayer and this experience 
need not be once forall. Thereare special 
hours and there can be special anointings 
and new manifestations of His presence 
[ 44 ] 


The Real Faith 


and power. Pentecost was the beginning, 
but the disciples had a repeated experience. 
The heart of Peter needed a refilling, and 
Ido not wonder. I only wonder at the 
miracle of his life. He had the Holy Spirit 
and he was yetacoward. He was filled 
with the Holy Spirit and astounded the 
world with his courage. What was true 
of him can be true of any man who be- 
lieves it, or, better, receives it. It is a re- 
ceiving, a taking, an accepting. This is 
faith in action. We know how to receive 
other things, even spiritual things. Why 
not the best? Why not open up every 
part of the whole life to the Holy Spirit? 
Give Him the right of way and act ac- 
cordingly. The soul may be saved apart 
from this second blessing. For the New 
Testament Christian was asked if he had 
received the Holy Spirit since he believed, 
but it is far from the Christian privilege 
and far from God’s desire. The most 


[45 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


wonderful thing in Christianity or in hu- 
man life is the consciousness of the in- 
dwelling Spirit of God in all His fullness 
and fellowship. We should accept forever 
the fact that we have received Him, and 
press on to know the secret of His fullness. 
This is it: the same faith by which Jesus 
is permitted to save us; He is permitted to 
baptize us with the Holy Spirit ; no condi- 
tion or circumstance can rob the soul of 
God’s best. We have faith to believe it 
for others. We should now believe it for 
ourselves, We should believe it for the 
ordinary as well as the extraordinary life. 
We should believe it in its relation to every 
day and to everything. We should grasp 
the promise with its high privilege as the 
most wonderful and most practical part of 
life. We should begin to make it real in 
practice, by thought, by conviction and 
action. To live as though it were true and 
the greatest oftruths. Totreat its mystery 


[46] 


The Real Faith 


like every other mystery, but never forget 
its reality. If faith is real then our relation 
to the Holy Spirit is real. If faith is prac- 
tical in any other part of life it is practical 
here. Every minister can write his sermon 
and do all his work in the fullness of the 
Holy Spirit. Every business man can 
transact his business in the fullness of the 
Holy Spirit. Every mother can carry the 
burdens of the home in the fullness of the 
Holy Spirit. Every child of God can 
come out of the valley and live on the 
mountain top if he will only believe. It is 
his to have something more than ordinary 
men. Something more than the angels in 
heaven. It is his to have the indwelling 
of the Holy Spirit in all His divine fullness. 
It is wicked to doubt, or to make an excep- 
tion of ourselves, or to thrust this great 
blessing out of our reach, or to permit mys- 
tery to destroy reality. There is no im- 
possibility here and no impracticability 


[47 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


and no favouritism. Itisfor every follower 
of Christ, and yet even His ministers, the 
larger part of them, are mechanical drud ges 
in their holy service because faith has never 
grasped God’s meaning for men. “Have 
ye received the Holy Spirit?” ought to be 
asked of every candidate for this sacred 
office and an intelligent, conscientious an- 
swer be demanded, and the manifestation 
of it be witnessed in the life. Away with 
the impression that this is for the few, or 
for the man in special work, or for some 
one marked as a saint, or the individual 
who has had a startling experience. It is 
for every man, who by faith grasps the 
promise to believe that he is filled with the 
Holy Spirit and to live in harmony with 
that stupendous fact. ‘“ Believe” and 
“receive” and ‘‘ wait” and the like are all 
practical words, and we can thrust them 
right into everyday life, and work and live. 


[48] 


IV 
THE REAL FIDELITY 


BEDIENCE is the one word above 
C all others which carries in every 

letter the sound of the practical. 
There is no mistaking or escaping the 
reality of doing His will. This is the 
larger part of the great secret “If ye love 
Me ye will keep My commandments and 
ye will pray the Father and He shall give 
you another comforter even the Spirit of 
truth.’ That “If” must be written in 
capitals for it is the necessary condition in 
receiving the Holy Spirit. “Whom God 
hath given to them that obey Him.” 
This is the way out of the maze into the 
open of life’s peace and power. In one of 
the tropical countries we walked into the 
fragrant and fruitful garden in the early 
evening hour and in the bright moonlight. 


[ 49 J 


The Real Holy Spirit 


We passed through an entrance into a 
vast maze of evergreens with its miles of 
narrow aisles and high walls. These 
winding, confusing walks ran in every 
conceivable direction and with no appar- 
ent ending. We wandered through this 
labyrinth with no guide and no one to ask 
the way. At last weary and almost ready 
to abandon hope of finding the way back 
to the open gardens, a friendly voice was 
heard, and soon the stranger appeared, 
almost like an angel guide. And he said 
“Follow me.” With quickened step we 
followed the new leader around countless 
corners and circles and at last through the 
gateway into light and liberty. Many a 
Christian wanders into this religious maze 
and makes earnest efforts, sometimes al- 
most frantic efforts, to find his way out, 
but only circles around and walks deeper 
into the darkness and the difficulty. 
There is a way out into life, real life, the 


[ 5°] 


The Real Fidelity 


life of the Holy Spirit. It is the way of 
obedience. To listen to His voice and to 
hasten His way and to walk in His foot- 
steps. This is not a puzzle and we need 
not stay in a maze. This is practical, in- 
tensely practical. Every man knows what 
it is to obey and he knows when he is 
obedient. There is no necessity for de- 
ception here. He has the right to claim 
the Holy Spirit when he has fulfilled 
the condition and is living an obedient 
life. We make other conditions or permit 
others to make conditions for us when the 
promise rests upon simple obedience. It 
is not even necessary to increase the 
imaginary difficulty by a special religious 
and spiritual vocabulary and talk about 
consecration and surrender, and other 
much misunderstood expressions. The 
four-lettered, simple, easily understood 
word “Obey” is sufficient. The earnest 
seeker after truth and the Spirit of truth 


[51] 


The Real Floly Spirit 


can grasp the meaning of this and thrust 
it deep into life. Real fidelity is the com- 
panion of real faith and they walk either 
side of the child of God and reveal to him 
the great truth concerning the Holy Spirit. 
A Christian business man became exceed- 
ingly troubled concerning his barren life 
and at last determined that at any cost he 
would know what it was to be filled with 
the Spirit. He abandoned his business for 
a time, shut himself in with his Bible. He 
prayed fervently and constantly for the 
Holy Spirit but failed to find his answer. 
F inally one night he heard the crying of a 
child. It is true that it was in a dream 
that he heard it, but to him it was very real. 
Some one tapped on his door. It was an 
angel, and the angel said to him, “Do 
you hear that child crying?” And he 
said, ‘Yes, but I first must be filled with 
the Spirit before I can doanything.” The 
angel left him. After a while some one 


[ 52 ] 


The Real Fidelity 


else tapped on the door. It was the 
Lord. He said, “ Do you hear the cries 
of that child?” And he said, “Yes, 
but I can never serve until I am 
Spirit-filled.” And the Lord said, “Go 
and relieve the cries of that child, and 
you shall know what the Spirit-filling 
means.’’ When he awoke the law of God 
was plain. If obedience is better than 
sacrifice it is better than most of the fool- 
ish means adopted in order to be filled 
with the Spirit. There can be no question 
that Christ made obedience as the condi- 
tion of the Father’s giving and our receiv- 
ing the Spirit. This is true in the begin- 
ning. It is increasingly true all through 
life, the Holy Spirit is in us to make us 
obedient and it is only as we yield in 
obedience, implicit and constant obedi- 
ence, to Christ’s commands that we can 
experience His conscious indwelling and 
know the meaning of being filled with His 


bos) 


The Real Floly Spirit 


Spirit. Agonizing prayer and every other 
effort are failures apart from an obedient 
life. When I am conscious of obedience 
to the best of my knowledge and ability, I 
am just as conscious that the Holy Spirit 
is living in me and working through me 


and filling me with His divine presence 
and power. What can be more real than 
this, to believe, to obey, to have? This 
simplicity has been passed by and many a 
sincere soul has wandered in search of 
something never to be found. The jewel 
is in our pathway and instead of seeing 
and seizing the treasure we pass it by or 
trample upon it and even hide it from 
others. Our Lord said more of simple 
obedience in His teaching than of any- 
thing else. He said the law must be 
more completely fulfilled. He said that 
He Himself came just to do the will of 
God. After a life of obedience for thirty 
years His first word was “Thus it decom- 
[ 54] 


The Real Fidelity 


eth us to fulfill all righteousness,” and then 
He was baptized with the Spirit. There 
can be no question concerning this strange 
fact that the Spirit came because of His 
obedience, but this was not sufficient. 
More startling yet He went on learning 
obedience even through suffering and 
reached the limit of this fidelity at last on 
the Cross. After this it was His to give 
this best blessing to His disciples. The 
fullness of the Spirit was and is the reward 
of obedience. His first followers learned 
the lesson and gave their loyalty to Him 
as Lord and Master and then expected 
and received this divine life. To listen to 
the voice of conscience and to make ear- 
nest effort to keep the commands of Christ 
is the proof of love and the preparation for 
the Holy Spirit. This is the real plan and 
the real promise and the real privilege. 
Even if we do not reach our ideal the 
Master who witnesses the whole-hearted 


[55 ] 


The Real FToly Spirit 


effort and the faithful attempt will not 
withhold the blessing. Conscious of an 
obedient spirit I can be just as conscious 
of the Holy Spirit. No man witha saintly 
look or a strange experience or even a 
wonderful work in the kingdom of God 
can rob me of my personal possession and 
assurance. A real obedience will invaria- 
bly and inevitably reveal a real Holy 
Spirit. This is the most important place 
for emphasis and cannot be given too 
much attention. The obedience of love 
must precede the fullness of the Spirit and 
just as certainly the fullness of the Spirit 
must follow. The most grave source of 
error is seeking the blessing before render- 
ing the obedience. Much blame for this 
must. be attached to the almost universal 
Christian teaching. Freedom of grace and 
simplicity of faith without the insistence 
on absolute obedience and the life of holi- 
ness. We may have imagined that only 


[ 56 ] 


The Real Fidelity 


those filled with the Spirit could be obedi- 
ent. It is rather the obedient heart which 
makes room for His indwelling. Obedi- 


ence drives out sin and self and makes the 
temple ready for His holy life. To rise in 
the power of the Spirit already in us to 
live an obedient life, is to be able to claim 
His divine promise. The Holy Spirit was 
sent specially and only to the obedient 
and to make His life theirs and to make it 
a conscientious reality, to make it possible 
for him to do the very works of Christ and 
even greater. We need to remember that 
God is found only in His will. That the 
very angels could not live with Him when 
they became disobedient. That if we are 
to live with God in the power of His Holy 
Spirit, or rather He is to live in us, we 
must first do His will. How easy it passes 
over the threshold of the lip, “Thy will 
be done on earth as it is in heaven.” A 
red-hot ploughshare running through the 


bs7 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


roots of the garden could not be more 
blasting than this answered prayer to 
human nature with its appetites and lusts. 
To open the doors of the chambers of the 
soul and in sincerity say, ‘Come in, Spirit 
of God, and Thy will be done in here” 
would make a revolution to most life 
nominally Christian. To stand in the 
home or in business or in society or some- 
times even in the church and to utter that 
sentence with the heart and the under- 
standing would be to stumble in the ex- 
pression and to startle us into silence, but 
this is necessary and because it is neces- 
sary it is practical. If this was necessary 
for Jesus Himself how much more for us? 
Every movement and moment of life must 
be brought into submission and allegiance 
to the Master. Then His promise is our 
real life. He intended the Holy Spirit to 
be much more to us than we have ever 
yet imagined. It is the stigma upon Chris- 


[ 58 ] 


The Real Fidelity 


tian life and the tragedy of living that we 
have failed to obey and to receive. To 
have the Holy Spirit in all His fullness 
and power need not be something for the 
chosen few or something abnormal or 
mysterious. It can be the possession of 
every obedient life and be made the 
greatest reality. We ought to keep say- 
ing to ourselves, not to others, “I am liv- 
ing in the obedience of love and I know I 
have the Holy Spirit.” We must not con- 
tinue to merely believe in the possibility, 
but in the actual possession. “Be ye 
holy” is the same in practice as “Be ye 
filled with the Spirit.” One is just as 
much a command as the other. There 
can be no mistake about the one, why 
need there be about the other? One is 
real for every day and for every man, and 
so is the other. The opposite of this is 
just as true. No one who lives a selfish 
life, who has a miserly, covetous, envious, 


[59 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


jealous spirit, who is harsh and critical, 
who is controlled by some subtle secret 
sin, who is cold and unscrupulous, who 
does not control temper and appetite, who 
does not constantly cry “Create in me a 
clean heart, O God” and immediately an- 
swers his own prayer can expect to be 
filled with the Spirit. It is utmost folly to 
claim that some past experience or that 
some long continued prayer performed 
the miracle. It is not true. It is evi- 
denced by the life and only by the life. 
How do I know I have the Holy Spirit? 
How do I know a tree is a pear tree? 
The universal law. By their fruits ye 
shall know them. There are distinct fruits 
of the Spirit. Obedience receives the 
blessing and obedience reveals the bless- 
ing. When God commanded them to 
build a holy place for His dwelling 
amongst them, they built it just “as the 
Lord commanded.” To make this under- 


[ 60 | 


The Real Fidelity 


stood forever, in two short chapters of the 
Bible that expression is used eighteen 
times “as the Lord commanded.” It was 
in this house built as the perfect expres- 
sion of His will that He came to dwell. 
God finds His home to-day in the human 
heart where His will is done. He dwells 
only in the atmosphere of obedience. The 
one secret of the marvellous achievement 
in the world of material forces in recent 
years is the secret of obedience. The 
inventors have not understood these forces 
only in a very limited way. The explana- 
tion is simple. Men have discovered cer- 
tain laws which control these forces and 
they give implicit obedience to them and 
secure the result. We cannot understand 
the spiritual, but every man can obey. 
We know the commandments and that is 
quite sufficient for love. Obedience is the 
reality of the wireless telegraphy. It must 
be the reality of the Holy Spirit life. 
[ 61 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


God’s promise is exceedingly practical. 
It respects conduct and character rather 
than personality. Every man can make 
it personal by coming into certain states 
of character and conditions of life. To 
have His will—as my meat and drink—is 
to have His Holy Spirit, but when we 
serve Him reluctantly, feebly and fitfully, 
we have no claims upon the promise. We 
live a hard life, a starved life, an unhappy 
lite. To be ready for the gentlest whisper 
of command and the faintest voice of con- 
science is to throw the heart doors wide 
open for His coming, and He always 
comes. This was the second part, and 
perhaps the most necessary and the most 
real part of the waiting days before the 
wonders of Pentecost. Their obedience 
was put to a most severe test by the con- 
tinuous waiting and waiting in darkness 
and wonder. They were commanded to 
wait and they manifested the sublime 


[ 62 ] 


The Real Fidelity 


faith of obedience to that last command. 
During those same days there was being 
wrought into every fibre of their being the 
spirit of absolute and constant obedience. 

There is no brand which was burned so _ 
deep into their hearts as this. It was for- 
ever their distinguishing mark and they 
carried it through persecution and death, 
Fidelity was their victory. Alas, faith- 
lessness is our failure. We are infidel 
because we are faithless. Faithlessness iS 
the meaning of infidelity. We are with- 
out the power of the Holy Spirit because 
we are disobedient. This can be taken out 
of the mysterious and unreal by walking 
in the pathway of His will. To obey is to 
receive. We can know this just as we 
know other things and with just as much 
reality and just as practically. It was the 
early morning hour of a clouded day. A 
day which came freighted with more than 
the ordinary and it seemed to carry the 


L 63 | 


The Real Holy Spirit 


impossible. The one thing which had to 
be accomplished, if all the other duties 
were passed by, was the making of the 
sermon. That was the great part of the 
minister’s life anyway, and now it was the 
last of the week. On every page of blank 
paper in front of me I saw the word 
“must.” I hastened to the desk behind 
a locked door; I had just bowed my head 
in prayer for the Holy Spirit, when im- 
mediately there came a gentle rap, but a 
busy sermon maker must not answer. 
Then another and a louder, but no answer. 
Then a call. There was some one at the 
telephone. An anxious messenger,—she 
was dying and wanted to see me. It 
was five miles away. What could I 
do? What could I do? What would 
become of the sermon? Instantly it 
flashed across the hesitating refusal, this 
must be the call of my Lord. He knows 
where the holiest service is to be rendered. 


[ 64 ] 


The Real Fidelity 


I abandoned everything and hastened on 
this newerrand. Ahalf day gone. Other 
calls came. The whole day gone. But I 
said that which I had the right to say, I 
am perfectly obedient and I have the Holy 
Spirit. This is His day. The sermons 
are His and all other duties are His to 
work out. The next morning dawned 
with such an experience in sermon mak- 
ing as was never mine; I had two sermons 
instead of one and two sermons which He 
used marvellously in helping and saving 
others. They were His sermons. He can 
use no other. Conscious of obedience and 
then conscious of the Holy Spirit, then 
conscious of new possibilities in life. This 
transforms the ministry and all Christian 
service and changes drudgery into delight. 


[ 65 ] 


Vv 


THE REAL FAME 


P | “HE mission of the Holy Spirit 
must be the mission of the indi- 
vidual who is filled with the Spirit. 

His work is to glorify Christ. Simon is 

still living. His subtle secret enemy is 

still working. Most desire for the Holy 

Spirit is stained or saturated with the de- 

sire to glorify self. Sometimes uncon- 

scious, but always a deadly poison to kill 
life at its best. There were never so many 

Christians recognizing the need of the Holy 

Spirit as at this hour. There never were 

sO many anxious to receive the blessing 

as now, but if this apparently holy desire 
was analyzed the discovery would be made 
in most instances that it was a selfish de- 
sire and personal glory was the unworthy 


ambition. Men want the Holy Spirit in 


[ 66 ] 


The Real Fame 


order that they may become famous for 
achievement or sometimes the greater 
folly and failure that they may be famous 
for saintliness. No Pharisee ever received 
~ such condemnation from the lips of Christ 
as this modern unholy holiness specimen. 
This tainted desire for the Spirit of God is 
more than a blunder, it is a blasphemy. 
“Why do I want the Holy Spirit ?” is the 
searching interrogation which should be 
rigorously and relentlessly pushed against 
the heart. A sincere earnest answer would 
in most instances uncover a selfish personal 
purpose. The one who is in any degree 
seeking his own glory and aggrandize- 
ment renders it absolutely impossible for 
the Holy Spirit to work through him. 
“ He shall glorify Me” is the clear and un- 
mistakable statement concerning His office 
in the world. He can dono other. The 
moment I seek my own glory I thwart His 
purpose and hinder His filling me with the 


[ 67 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


divine life. This can be made very real. 
Every one can know for himself what is 
the real object of his search. There need 
be no mist or fog about this. Why do I 
want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? 
Do I want Him for the same reason that He 
wants me? Is it self or Christ? This ray 
of light will drive away the darkness and 
mystery and reveal the heart just as it is. 
In most cases it is an astonishing self- 
exaltation. James and John never were 
filled with the Spirit until they had learned 
this important lesson. Then they became 
ashamed that they had ever asked for self- 
honour.—To sit in His throne in the glory. 
—When they forgot themselves and in all 
humility sought His glory the Holy Spirit 
wrought through them the wonders of the 
kingdom. What a contrast in life and 
service this would make for most followers 
of Christ to-day. This would be the moun- 
tainside with its perennial fountains of 


[ 68 ] 


The Real Fame 


peace and power. The old well in time of 
drought quickly ran dry, then the singing, 
sparkling brook in the centre of the farm 
was used, but that sometimes ran too low 
and occasionally did not run at all, but 
there was a spring a mile away in the side 
of the mountains, purest water, clear as 
crystal, this never failed. We could al- 
ways go to the spring in the hills and 
drink from the very fountains of God. 
Most Christians live around the well and 
have many a dry season with parched lips. 
Many others find the stream of deeper 
happiness and more useful life, but they 
fear and falter and fail. The few know the 
way up the side of the mountain of ever- 
lasting truth and everlasting strength and 
joy. The spring in the eternal hills is on 
the height of complete self-abandon, and 
to experience the joy of doing everything 
for His sake. To be filled with the Spirit 
by being filled with this supreme and all 


[ 69 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


controlling motive. In the passing away 
of King Arthur, Sir Bedivere was com- 
manded by the king to go to the shore of 
the lake and to draw from its sheath that 
far famed Excalibur and in the light of 
the winter moon to hurl it into the 
deep waters. He hesitates, then gazes 
at the sparkling blade and its gem-be- 
studded hilt. The diamonds and topaz 
and jacinth light dazzles his eyes and 
captivates his heart. His selfish desires 
controlled and he thrusts it in hiding in the 
water flags and returned to the dying king. 
His sovereign said, ‘Hast thou fulfilled my 
command which I gave? What is it thou 
hast seen or what hast thou heard?” Sir 
Bedivere was bold and quick to reply. “I 
heard the ripple washing in the reeds and 
the wild waters lapping on the crags.” 
Rallying his dying energies the king ex- 
claimed: ‘Thou hast betrayed thy nature 
and thy name. I charge thee quickly, go 


qed 


The Real Fame 


again, cast the sword away and watch.” 
He goes again to the shore of the lake and 
draws from its hiding-place that priceless 
possession. In his own conceit and self 
life he argues his case and hides it again. 
On his return to the wounded king, he 
receives the same piercing glance and 
pointed question, ‘“‘What hast thou seen 
and heard?” He hesitated and at last 
replied, ‘“ Again I heard the waters lapping 
on the crags and the long ripple washing 
in the reeds.”” Then again came the king’s 
reproach and reproof. ‘Miserable, wicked, 
untrue, unknightly traitor-hearted, thou 
wouldst betray me for the precious hilt.” 
This was more than Sir Bedivere could 
endure. He rushed out of the king’s 
presence and down the hillside into the 
reeds and in complete self-surrender to the 
wishes of his king he seized the sword, 
trembling and tearful, but determined, he 
hurled it through the air and flashing in 


[72] 


The Real FToly Spirtt 


the moonlight, it falls into the centre of the 
lake but lo, just as it fell a snow-white 
arm arises from the water and grasps the 
famous hilt and swings it thrice, then 
draws it back into the lake. Now the 
greater miracle. Sir Bedivere is a new 
man in a new world with a new spirit. 
The sacrifice was wonderful but this was 
eclipsed by the second experience when 
he carries the dying Arthur upon his 
Shoulders to the shore and together they 
see the holy vision and hear the voice 
from its midst: “The old order changeth 
yielding place to the new and God fulfills 
Himself in many ways.’ This all would 
have been lost to himself and his world if 
he had kept the famous sword and sought 
his own glory. In the surrender were the 
triumph and the new life. There was no 
other way. The soul must be purified if 
God comes in. Here is the great barrier 
to the Christian’s highest experience. 


tees) 


The Real Fame 


There must be an empty place before 
* there can be any filling. To be filled 
means first to be emptied. To be filled 
with the Spirit demands the departure 
of the last atom of self-seeking and per- 
sonal glory. The Father glorifies Jesus 
in heaven. The Holy Spirit glorifies Him 
in the earth. The Christian heart is a 
channel through which this glorifying of 
Christ is accomplished. To glorify is to 
reveal the true value. The only glory of 
Christ is to be what He is. . The Holy 
Spirit is to reveal Christ just as He is. 
This He does. He makes Christ glorious 
to us and in order that this could be done 
it was necessary that Christ should go 
away from His disciples. He could not 
be there in the flesh and in the Spirit 
both. The spiritual indwelling was most 
important and could only be universal. 
He could neither be glorified in heaven nor 
in us until He gave up His earthly life. 


[73 


The Real Holy Spirit 


Many men now believe in Jesus and follow 
Him and love Him but never get beyond 
the first stage of the disciples’ experience. 
They have never grasped the meaning of 
the Holy Spirit’s coming and His coming 
inthem. The condition of this spiritual 
life and power is the consistent and conse- 
crated codperation with Him in His one 
work of glorifying Christ. The least hesi- 
tation, or hindrance, or hidden motive, 
means failure. It is the mockery of di- 
vine wisdom and even divine necessity 
to expect the Holy Spirit to live with 
self-seeking. We must get away from 
“knowing Christ after the flesh,” if we 
would ever know Him in the power 
of the Spirit. This would make the 
heart’s door turn on its rusty hinges, and 
swing wide open if we could say, “Even 
though we have known Christ after the 
flesh yet now know we Him so no more.” 
It is only the Spirit can glorify Christ. 


[74] 


The Real Fame 


He takes the things of Christ and declares 
them unto us. He does not do this asa 


matter of knowledge but as a personal 
experience and possession. He gives it 
to us to partake of the Christ life and thus 
to reveal His glory to others. This too is 
stamped with reality. We can grasp this 
and live it. It will destroy much and 
much that we hold precious, but blessed is 
the man who loosens his grip on the self 
life and courageously hurls it from him 
and gives the Spirit of God a chance. No 
one questions the reality of Paul’s experi- 
ence. He was filled with the Holy Spirit 
but only because he could say ‘“ For me to 
live is in Christ.” No man ever breathed 
who was more anxious to glorify Christ. 
Christian workers now want the Holy 
Spirit in order to make a name for them- 
selves or they are anxious for the feeling 
of joy and peace which is promised. We 
must be more concerned about the ful- 


C753 


The Real Holy Spirtt 


filling the conditions of the promise and 
God will take care of the fulfillment of the 
promise. It is not feeling or even faith 
It is the great fact of the Holy Spirit’s 
mission with which we must reckon first. 
There is a giving on our part before there 
is a giving on God’s part. ‘“ Give Me thy 
heart and I will come and live in it,” is His 
answer to our desire. Do we make the 
sermons and render the service and speak 
_ the word and fill our office and give our 
money in love for Him and for His lost 
ones without any desire for praise or self 
glory? Can we say always I am willing 
to fail if He can be glorified. This is our 
only hope of being filled with the Spirit. 
The messenger of the Master must always 
stand in the shadow of the cross and never 
show himself while his Lord is being ex- 
alted before the eyes of men. One of the 
saddest sights in this world is the vision of 
a minister seeking his own fame in preach- 


[ 76 ] 


The Real Fame 


ing the Gospel of Christ. Yet this is not 
the exception. Ministers are more than 
most other men slaves to the desire for 
fame. Seekers after degrees and honours 
and office and robes of sanctity to cover 
up rags of selfishness. This is the Spirit 
of Christ, ““I came not to be ministered 
unto but to minister,’ and the Spirit of 
Christ and the Holy Spirit are one. It is 
very plain. It is exceedingly simple. It 
can easily be made the most real part of 
life. Any man can know his motive. If it 
is wrong he can change it. If it is the su- 
preme motive then he can be filled with the 
Spirit. The great failure is here. The re- 
fusal to surrender and to know only 
Christ and Him crucified. His glory 
must be stamped on every word and deed 
and thought. Know thyself. Do not be 
deceived. There is no other way. Self 
must be driven out before the life can be 
filled with the Spirit. This is the path- 
[77] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


way to real fame. Any other is only over 


the desert towards a mirage. The Chris- 
tian’s fame is wrapped up in the same 
bundle with the fame of Christ. His 
glory is our glory. Some day we shall 
share with Him the trumphs of eternity. 
There is a beautiful story told of Titian, 
the great painter; he met a young man 
whose gift in the direction of art seemed 
to be unusually promising. He urged the 
young man to give up the idea of winning 
fame in a military life and to devote his 
talents and his energy in painting. After 
the young man had laboured for a long 
time upon a painting in which he was am- 
bitious to make his name famous, he came 
to a point where he felt that his genius 
failed. In despair, the young man threw 
down his brush. Titian met him weeping, 
and did not ask the reason, but going into 
the studio, he realized that the young man 
had felt that he had reached the limit of 


[ 73 ] 


The Real Fame 


his genius. So Titian took up the brush, 
remained at work through the night and 
finished the picture. The next afternoon 
the young man came back to the studio, 
resolved that he would try art no more, 
and as he entered the door, there, upon 
the great easel, was his finished picture. 
He knew at once, instinctively, that the 
great master of art, Titian, had completed 
his design. With tears coursing down his 
cheeks he said, “I cannot abandon my art. 
I must continue for his sake. He has 
done so much for me I will forget myself 
and please him. My master’s fame is my 
fame. I will paint and do my best.” 
To-day his pictures hang side by side with 
Titian’s on the gallery walls of the world. 
The Master has done more for thee. His 
fame is your fame. Give Him your best. 


E79] 


VI 
THE REAL FORCE 


r “HE use of material force has rev- 
olutionized modern life. The 
most striking characteristic of 

this miracle working material force is 

that it is so immaterial and mysterious. 

In its varied forms it is so real and yet so 

unreal. That which may have most of 

practical value we know least about. Our 
ignorance is no barrier to our advantages. 

We light our cities and run our machinery 

and move our cars and in reality change 

our world by electricity and yet the very 
genius. who throws the harness upon this 
swift steed and snaps the traces fast to the 
chariot of civilization confesses his igno- 
rance more than other men. He knows 
the fact of the force and the laws of its 
working but that is practically the limit of 


[ 80 ] 


“The Real’ Horce 


his knowledge. His fellow men know less 
but they listen and live and never question 
the reality. These great world forces are 
akin to the spiritual and beyond explana- 
tion but not beyond the every-day use of 
the every-day life of the most ordinary men. 
Its value and its reality to him does not 
depend upon a complete understanding. 
He makes it real to himself by personal 
and constant use. To send a message in 
human language across the ocean without 
any visible medium, with no carrier seen by 
human vision is no less mysterious and 
wonderful than the working of the divine 
Spirit in the lives of men. Why make His 
power any the less real or any the less 
usable? All power can be appreciated 
and made practical but not describable. 
How, what, where, and a thousand inter- 
rogations can be thrust against it without 
any answer. Its nature and form and 
movement and measure no human wisdom 


[ 81] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


can tell. “What is power?” might be asked 
of the sunlight and the lightning and the 
magnet and the steam and their kind and 
the silence is only broken once by the 
voice, “Power belongeth untoGod.” This 
secret, silent, supernatural force in Chris- 
tianity is its supreme element. If it is 
eliminated then it is impossible to fulfill 
even the Christian promise or principle. 
Without the Holy Spirit living in men and 
working through them Christianity is a 
mere system of ethics and philosophy and 
its hope is an iridescent dream. This 
divine force in the world’s redemption and 
in the life of individual men is the one 
supreme reality. This is ours not to com- 
prehend or to explain but to live. One of 
the last words of the Risen Lord to His 
wondering and weakening disciples was, 
“Tarry ye in the city until ye be endued 
with power from on high” and for increased 
emphasis upon this most important truth 


[ 82 ] 


The Real Force 


He alterwards said, ‘‘Ye shall receive power 
after that the Holy Spirit has come upon 
you.” He did not make explanation but 
He was very positive concerning the power 
and the result. The tried and trembling 
followers had heard from John of the bap- 
tism of the Spirit. They had heard from 
Christ about the Father’s giving and the 
Spirit and on the last night He had told 
them about the Spirit living in them and do- 
ing His wonderful work of convincing and 
witnessing and comforting. Now it was 
theirs to believe and obey and thus be the 
channels for the glorifying of their crucified 
Lord. They were to be witnesses but the 
understanding was that the Holy Spirit was 
to witness through them. They were the 
conductors for the greatest force the world 
had ever known. His work of comforting 
and teaching and sanctifying them was but 
a means to an end that they might glorify 
Christ in rendering effective service for men 


[ 83 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


and conquering the worldfor Him. There 
could not have been made a more unques- 
tioned demonstration of reality than in the 
work of the Holy Spirit in these men. 
They were completely changed themselves 
and they turned the world upside down. 
There can be no explanation made of them 
or their work other than that the Master 
had fulfilled His promise to the letter. 
Every man of them retained his personal 
characteristics and yet he was another man. 
There is only one answer, ‘“ He was filled 
with the Holy Spirit.” That which was 
their experience and the peculiar mark of 
all Christian history and the one secret of 
every great man’s work in the kingdom 
of God can be ours and with just as much 
reality and just as much effect. It is not 
a question of feeling any more than con- 
version is a question of feeling. It is a 
question of fact and of faith and of fidelity. 
Our feeling the power of the Spirit when 


[ 84] 


The Real Force 


He is working through us is not neces- 
sary. Our fulfilling the conditions is posi- 
tively essential. It may be when the indi- 
vidual feels his weakest, the power is the 
mightiest. He who gave this one of the 
greatest tests declared I was with you in 
weakness, My preaching was in power. 
The Holy Spirit may hide Himself in 
human weakness at its weakest point in 
order to accomplish His divine purpose 
and give glory only to Him. We need 
simply to feel our own weakness and not 
His might. Faith confidently grasps the 
promise and fidelity fulfills the condition. 
The power is often lost by waiting in the 
wrong way. The mechanical arrange- 
ment may be perfect, the force may be 
abundant, but there is no light or motion, 
the one requisite has not been fulfilled. 
The contact has not been made. There 
is a separation. It may be exceedingly 
narrow, but it must be bridged. Here is 


[85 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


the fatal and frequent mistake. If we 
would command Nature we must first and 
absolutely obey her. It is easy to long 
for power. It is easy to ask for it. This 
may not be even a mark of goodness or 
grace. Who would not be willing or even 
anxious to have power? But this only 
comes by being filled with the Spirit, and 
this only comes when we are emptied of 
other things, and when the old self is 
driven out, and His divine self is in com- 
plete control. Any man can have the 
power of the Holy Spirit, but he must 
have the filling. If he wants to be able to 
do the works of God he must have God 
live in him. The power must use him, 
not he use it. He is not to possess power 
to use at his will. The power is to pos- 
sess him. He must live as one given up 
to a power which has the entire control of 
life. More than that and in a very real 
sense lives in him and has complete pos- 


[ 86 ] 


The Real Force 


session of the inmost being. To permit 
the possession is the prerequisite to ex- 
periencing the power. To work for God 
is one thing. To have God work through 
us is another. We are eager and anxious 
oftentimes to do the one and make strenu- 
ous efforts to do it but we fail. We al- 
ways will fail at least in enjoying any real 
success or satisfaction. We must give 
God a chance to work His perfect will 
through us. The saving of this world is 
His plan as well as the power through 
which it is to be accomplished. He does 
not want us to plan and worry and work 
for Him. What He wants is our lives and 
to work out His own plans through them. 
To surrender to His will is to open the 
gate and let the flood rush through and 
down upon the wheels of life. It is the 
work of a will, not a wish or a whim, and 
it may be the work of amoment. There 
was a waiting for the apostles and some 


[374 


The Real Holy Spirit 


of the early Christians and even for Paul, 
but other men were regenerated and filled 
the same day and the same hour. The 
believer may begin to live the Spirit-filled 
life as soon as he is born again. The life 
abundantly may be the life instantly. By 
the same faith which saves us we can live 
in the confidence that the Spirit of power 
is within us, and as we will to have Him He 
works through us for the accomplishment 
of the one purpose. This must always be 
reckoned with. The greatest blessing God 
could give us was not bestowed for any 
self-exaltation or enjoyment, or to save us 
from toil and trouble. It is more than 
that, infinitely more than that. Only he 
can receiye the power from on high who 
at any cost reveals Christ to his fellow 
men, and thus glorifies his Risen Lord. 
This is the kind of men for whom the 
world is waiting. This is the man for 
whom God is waiting. Why are we wait- 


[ 88 ] 


The Real Force 


ing? Blessed is he who opens up the 
channels of his life to the power of God. 
He may come out of a coal mine and 
shake Wales from one end to the other and 
make all England tremble, and the round 
world feel the mighty impulse. The most 
ordinary of men may be the most extra- 
ordinary in the kingdom of God. Every 
page of Christian history has the lines of 
this story written in capitals or italics. 
Here is the emphasis. Sometimes it is 
written even between the lines. Paul was 
filled with the Holy Spirit, but not until 
after Ananias came. Who was Ananias ? 
Some obscure believer never heard of be- 
fore or after. But the great apostle re- 
ceived his greatest blessing anc the source 
of all his power through the little Ananias. 
The power is for every man. They were 
all filled. The promise is to a//. It was all 
in Ephesus and a/7 in Samaria, and a// in 
the house of Cornelius, and a// everywhere. 


[ 89 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


The only hindrance is in the man himself, 
and in this failure he renders himself per- 
fectly helpless, “‘ For apart from Me ye can 
do nothing.” On the other hand, weak- 
ness itself becomes strength and out of the 
life flow rivers of courage and love and 
peace and joy. Preaching and power 
then are the same words. Simon can 
become a Peter and his sermon be like 
an earthquake shock or a lightning flash 
while 3,000 at once rushed through the 
gates of the kingdom. Every Saturday 
morning for many years I have read the 
story of the crucifixion before the daily 
task of preparation for Sunday. I have 
read it through my tears and entered into 
His sufferings and shame in order to 
crucify my own will and to appreciate and 
appropriate His Spirit. Many times on 
reaching the statement that “He saved 
others, Himself He could not save” I have 
paused and closed the book and sought 


[ 90 ] 


The Real Force 


aa 


with deepening desire to know that truth 
and to live it. To live it before I attempted 
to preach it, to secure this Spirit of Christ 
before I could claim the power of His Holy 
Spirit. The one has invariably been to me 
the pathway to confidence in the other. I 
claim the right to the power of His Spirit 
when I have the spirit of His cross. When 
I have made the one real I know the real- 
ity of the other. The only way to secure 
the manifestation of the electric current is 
to supply the conductor which its nature 
demands. The only way to secure the 
abiding manifestation of the Spirit of God 
is to supply the conductor of the motive 
of Christ. To live as He lived and love as 
He loved. To love others and not self. 
To live for others and not for self. To 
make sermons and render every service 
conscious of His Spirit and then to be con- 
scious of the divine power. If the copper 


wire does its business this other conductor 
[ 91 ] 


The Real Holy Spirit 


will just as surely accomplish its purpose. 
Why not believe it and use it? Why con- 
tinue to stamp it as unreal and leave it for 
others? This is for every life and for 
every hour of life. Some service rendered 
may cost the greatest effort or a sermon 
be intellectually brilliant and the result of 
hardest toil and both alike be only failure. 
They may be even more than failure ; they 
may be branded as fault. Even human 
eloquence at its best can never transmit 
life. This is the purpose of Christian 
preaching and Christian activity. Min- 
istry of any kind without the power of the 
Spirit is valueless because “the flesh prof- 
iteth nothing.” The one necessity is for 
all, but we must not expect the same 
manifestation for all. If two lives are sur- 
rendered to God and they are filled with 
the Spirit the experience will depend upon 
the individual temperament and disposi- 
tion. God fills the vessels but He also 


[ 92 ] 


The Real Force 


makes them, and every one is somewhat 
different from the other. They may differ 
in shape and size but the same water of 
life fills them, and to the brim, yes, and 
keeps them full. The Nile Valley had its 
drought and the people had their famine 
for centuries. Now the great reservoir at 
the head waters of the river furnishes a 
constant and plentiful flow of water 
through the long valley and over the 
delta there is now rich harvest and abun- 
dant life. This is the divine provision 
for the Christian. The power is not 
spasmodic and uncertain. It is not a 
freshet with sometimes injury instead of 
benefit. It is intended to be a steady 
stream of power through life for the sav- 
ing of men. Neither Scripture nor ex- 
perience teach that there is a once for 
all reception of the Holy Spirit, but rather 
that there is a continuous reception and 
infilling. The command “Be ye filled” 
[93 ] 


The Real fTfoly Spirit 


means “be ye in the attitude of be- 
ing filled.” “Be ye being filled with the 
Spirit””—moment by moment, any moment 


ordinary or special wherever and whenever 
the need presents itself the Spirit meets 
the necessity. To be filled is to keep filled 
and be ready for any call for service. 
Remember if a copper wire will make the 
power of electricity real a consecrated life 
will make real the power of the Holy 
Spirit. 


[ 94 J 


Printed tn the United States of America 3 


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